


The Adventures of Derek and Laura in New York

by Northisnotup



Series: Hale Family Momento's [1]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Angst, Family, Gen, Humor, Pack Dynamics
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-10-21
Updated: 2013-04-15
Packaged: 2017-11-16 18:02:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,524
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/542276
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Northisnotup/pseuds/Northisnotup
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The video had shown up in a box, a week ago. It was marked from New York, nothing else. For reasons none of the pack could quite comprehend, they’d taken it to Stiles’ and were watching the video’s one by one. They haven’t told Derek yet. No one is sure what to say.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Fix You

The camera is shaking, the operator bouncing as she angles the lens through the partially open door, to where they could see a younger, infinitely sadder Laura and Derek Hale. Curled up together on the only thing unpacked in the empty room around them; A king sized bed. Someone off frame shushes the camera girl, and slowly the shaking stops and details come into view. A room similar to a blank canvas, boxes on the floor, a bare mattress and two shivering bodies lying next to one another. Laura’s fingers gently combing through Derek’s hair where he rests on her chest, over her heart. She is singing softly. A few verses in, the song is obviously ‘Fix you,’ by Coldplay, and her voice is getting more and more ragged, breaking into light sniffles and then sobs. 

A hand curls tight around Allison’s elbow as she recoils in shock, Derek’s voice drifting out of the speakers as he finishes the verse, promising to fix his sister, holding her tight as she cries. 

The camera immediately drops to the floor, beige carpet and small feet with pink toe nails now in view. 

“I don’t think we were supposed to see that,” the woman’s voice is surprisingly deep. “What we even do? They’ve lost everything.”

“I don’t know. But they’re together, and they’ve got us. Right?” 

There's a bit of fumbling, static, missed words and camera stops recording. The video had shown up in a box, a week ago. It was marked from New York, nothing else. For reasons none of the Pack could quite comprehend, they’d taken it to Stiles’ and were watching the video’s one by one. They haven’t told Derek yet. No one is sure what to say.


	2. Chess Scene

A chess game progresses slowly, each pawn moving exactly one space per turn and never taking another over. 

They think this video may have been a mistake, Erica and Scott both voting to move on when a slam is heard. The right side of the chess board, unseen except for pink polished nails swears and swings the camera up to meet Derek coming through the door. 

“Lena! Jesus, I told you to leave a note of the door if you were filming. I’ll just,” he gestures to the hallway, cheeks flushed and jaw clenched in a way that would have been familiar if not for the youth there. This video is only, at most 3 years old, but the Derek in there looks light in a way he isn't now. 

“Dee, what happened? I thought Laura was buying groceries this week. We’re out of cookies, other things too but the cookies are the most important. The good kind, you know the ones, Laura always gets the wrong ones.” She swans on for a few minutes, the focus sharpening and softening intermediately on Derek until he is relaxed and leaning against the hallway door. He has one paper bag with him. 

“Yea, sorry Lena. She’s still at the store.” 

“Did you leave her there? Why? Was she getting chatted up, was he cute?” She's teasing, probing, about to speak more when Derek interrupts her, sounding tired and a little guilty. 

“No, she started crying in the family planning section.” 

Outside the camera’s view ‘Lena’ tells the other chess side to take a break, waiting for them to get up before walking past the lens. She's not tall, actually she's rather short, with long dark hair, but she in no way looks fragile. She marches up to Derek who's now holding his hands up in a placating manner. The set of the camera when she walked away has cut off half his face- Clean shaven as he never is now, and a frown pinching his lips together. 

“You left her there? Your sister, your Alpha, and you left her alone in a supermarket? What is wrong with you!” A growl follows the end of the words, so werewolf then. Erica takes a second to feel a little vindicated, there are others out there. 

Lena grabs the bag out of his hands, spilling six or more cardboard boxes over the carpet. Silence reigns over what is presumably and staring contest. One the Derek loses it seems, his head tipping away, heaving a sigh and starting to explain. He sounds steadier, happier even then Erica has ever heard. “She started sobbing next to the freaking pregnancy tests! What was I supposed to do? She dragged me to the store when it was her turn, walks around like nothing’s wrong and then just collapses next to the display of sale tampons. I told grabbed these and told her she was a grown ass woman who can deal with her shit, and left.” 

Derek makes no move to pick up the tests from the floor. He eases by Lena, who has her hands on her hips, but has said nothing. “When she comes home, you can tell her I’ll hold her hand while they marinate, but I am not checking the results. I am an awesome brother, I’m not even making her pay me back and these things are expensive.” 

Lena says nothing, only nodding when Derek’s shoulders loosen and his chin raises and inch. He then walks off camera, a door slams, and she snarls kicking one of the boxes before calling to redo the chess shot. 

Looking around, there is disbelief and humor written openly on everyone’s faces. But no one speaks. This is one of those moments, like when Derek fixes something or casually drops a knowledge bomb, ‘Actually, that song is called Baba O’Riley.’ ‘Stiles Jesus, don’t you know anything, bleach will ruin that!’ ‘No, not this one, the wrench that looks like it’s got a hole on the end. Because it does. It’s a socket wrench and I need it.’ Where everyone at once realizes that Derek had a life before the fire, and after the fire; that never involved any of them. That there is this other Derek who lives somewhere, who jokes casually, and holds his sisters hand through tough times, and buys the right cookies at the grocery store. And he isn't theirs.


	3. One more tape

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Two things are very, very clear to Boyd. Lena was a film major, and she was also Derek’s best friend. It’s a bit of a weird concept, Derek having a life, but unlike the others, he seems to be the only one not completely shocked about this.

Two things are very, very clear to Boyd. Lena was a film major, and she was also Derek’s best friend. It’s a bit of a weird concept, Derek having a life, but unlike the others, he seems to be the only one not completely shocked about this. He helped Boyd with his English once, on a random Thursday night after he’d been turned. Training was over and Derek started moving some of the old mats from the open area to the train car, presumably to sleep. Instead of leaving, like Erica and Isaac had, he stayed, helped and had gotten a rare look of approval for it. It had gone well, until the end. Derek corrected quietly from one end of the train car, while pouring over maps and what looked to be a very old address book. At one point they’d even had an almost debate over the significance of Catcher in the Rye (Derek didn’t like the book but understood what made it important, Boyd had just thought it was plain bad and a little boring) When it all went to shit. 

“Man, everyone thinks you’re some loser who didn’t graduate, why not just tell them? Derek Hale: College graduate, Bachelors in….”

“Behavioural psychology. It`s honors only though, I dropped out before completion.” His voice was dry as all get out, but there was pride there. “My mom dropped out. She used to read our text books to try and help us with homework, so school was always really important…” He cut himself off there, taking a shaky breath and for a second looking like he wanted to kill something. He features stayed human- This was a month before the full moon, when Boyd learned anger was his strongest anchor. He’d fallen silent after that, and Boyd had gone home to a dead quiet house feeling no more welcome than before he got bit. 

The camera is out of focus when it turns on this time, and unlike the time before it’s not Lena behind it, it’s Derek. The lens jiggles back and forth, and if he’s shaking the camera and trying to get it to focus that way. 

“I don’t understand this stupid thing anymore than I did an hour ago. I’m not doing this.” The tone is one Boyd hears Derek use all the time, usually with Stiles. One of reluctance and annoyance, but everyone in the room knows that if Derek really hadn’t wanted to indulge her, he wouldn’t have turned the camera on. 

“Come on!” They get a close up of her chest as she leans in to show Derek the settings again. “I will say this one more time. ‘If I can learn to do it, you can learn to do-‘” Derek makes a low noise in his throat, buzzing the speakers on Stiles’ computer as he cuts her off. 

“No. Do not make me Anastasia in this weird re-imagining of our friendship that I know you’re doing right now.” 

The camera finally focuses on her face, which is slack in surprise and delight. Lena has her hair and make up done this time, making her eyes look several times larger and her lips more pouty. She looks young and innocent. Completely at odds with the evil expression that twists her features. 

“You got my reference! Oh, I’m so proud. It feels… good. Like all the time and effort I put into being your friend-,” 

“I am your only friend,”

“Like all my headaches, all the tears and pain have now been worth it,” In the fashion of a true friend she just raises her voice and trumpets over him. 

“Lena you have made me watch that movie so many times. Because you think it’s funny that, like Anya and Dmitri, we’re two orphans. And that our being orphans has more to do with politics than any real personal matter.” 

The room collectively flinches. This is the only time any of them have ever heard Derek talk about the fire, let alone joke about it. 

“That’s because it is funny, and also I love that you let me laugh and make really inappropriate jokes about your pain. “

“And in return I get to laugh at whatever sexually transmitted diseases you might get. Speaking of which,” He tucks the camera into the crook of his arms and begins to slowly clap his hands. Silence reigns before she gets it and snarls. 

“Sometimes I re-remember that you had chlamydia and I just laugh, for hours.” 

“Fuck yourself with a rusty chainsaw, Anya.” 

“You already did, and it gave you tetanus.” 

The screen then went black, before reasserting itself sideways. Lena’s clothes were mussed and her makeup was smeared. To the side, Laura, alive and well, was leaning back against a wall, silently laughing so hard there were tears on her cheeks. Beside her there sat a half empty bottle with clear liquid in it, something out of focus floating on its top. 

“Okay, okay.” Lena put out both hands to steady herself against a closed door. She was slurring slightly. “I turned the camera on. So, let’s go over this again. I am your best friend. Why can’t I see your penis?” 

Laura let out a choked wheezing noise. 

“Because!” Derek yelled from behind the door. “That is not what friends do!” 

Lena took a couple seconds to consider. “Yea, okay. But you have to drink more with me, and you have to stand half in, half out.” 

Laura chose this moment to do a spit take of the alcohol she was drinking. “Be-because –cause,” She gasped, “That’s how bisexuality works!” Before she was lost to laughter, small purple flowers and Ever clear spilling, turning her tank top translucent. 

“Oh fuck you,” Derek’s futures were almost obscured in the low light, “By that logic, Laura should have come with me.” He stumbled toward his sister who reached sticky hands out in a childish gesture before pulling him close. She nuzzled his jaw, and he relaxed until his weight started pushing them sideways. 

“Hey, little brother,” She cooed, running her hands through his hair, pushing and pulling him until he was tucked comfortably at her side. “How are you?” 

He grimaced at her, entire body expressing his malcontent. “Can we not?” his voice was dangerously close to a whine. 

“Hey little brother!” This time she all but sang it out, her voice ringing through the small empty apartment. “How are you?” 

“Whole and Hale,” Derek rolled his eyes, turning his face into her neck to hide a grin. “How do you fare, big sister?” 

“Hale and Whole.” Laura giggled, hands clenching and unclenching on his shoulders. 

They sat in a companionable silence, giggling and trading light touches as they finished off the bottle. Lena only turned off the camera when they started to sway and dip into sleep. 

Scott pushed himself away from the screen violently, pacing across the small room and looking anguished. 

“I don’t think we should be doing this anymore.” He spat the words out quickly, meeting everyone’s eyes in turn. “I mean, look at that! That was something, this is not something…” he fell silent, his anger leaving in a rush that seemed to sap the strength from his limbs. 

“I don’t think I ever really thought of her as a person,” Scott’s voice is small, tiny and quiet and the line of his shoulders spells defeat. “I mean, she was all he had left, and we just.” 

Isaac puts a hand on his shoulder, allowing Scott to seek comfort there. 

“Well, to be fair, it’s hard to see someone as human once they’re, you know, dead.” Stiles scratches the back of his neck, looking from Scott to the pile of tapes they have left and back. “Besides, I mean, this could help us! We have no idea where Derek is coming from half the time, and-“ 

“No, Stiles.” Allison spoke up next, head down, hands in her lap avoiding everyone else’s gaze. “Scott’s right, this is intensely private. What are we going to gain by seeing him happy?” 

Stiles scoffed, throwing his hands out, earnest eyes appealing to the three undecided voters around them. “Um, I don’t know, things that could stop him? Come on, this guy has sided with Peter once before, he tried to kill Lydia! Derek isn’t exactly always on the right side of the fence here guys.” 

Scott very viably wavered. Stiles, as always, went for the kill.

“Come on, just one more tape, and if there’s nothing of use we’ll pack them up and leave them on his doorstep, easy as pie.” He gave his most convincing grin. Yeah, he could admit, if pressed, that there may be more to Derek than met the eye. But this was also the guy who’d maybe threatened him one too many times. If there was anything besides emotional blackmail on these tapes that could be used, Stiles wanted it. 

Splitting the tense air, Scott nodded once. One more tape.


End file.
